Dynamic Range Day, 2011

Dynamic Range Day is a call to end the “loudness war” that is ruining recorded music. In an effort to make their music sound louder than the next guy’s, recordists have been using compression to crush the life out of that music. Ironically, as newer technology allows greater and more natural dynamic range in a recording, newer recordings have less of it. The following video illustrates how dynamic range is destroyed:

Perhaps that is why movie soundtracks, in my humble opinion, usually sound better than an ordinary music recording. Movie sound designers leave a generous amount of headroom in the recording levels to allow for  the explosive peaks of sound effects that are intended to deliver an aural punch right to the viewers stomach. The intentional removal of dynamic range from modern musical recordings may also be the reason that some listeners insist that older analog recordings on vinyl sound better.

If you are unfamiliar with terms like compression, limiting, equalization, clipping, dB, etc., this is a good time to look them up. Be sure to check out the Dynamic Range Day Website and search for other information on the topic.

Update on Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 11:44AM by Editor

Here’s why “remastered” versions are usually Worse.

Listen to this series of video clips on high quality speakers or headphones. It will be obvious which ones were crushed to death by dynamic range compression. In general, quality has gotten worse since the 1980s.

If that’s not enough, low dynamic range causes ear fatigue. Note that many modern recordings contain clipping throughout; sine waves have been turned into square waves by the compression/limiting process. Back in the “good old days” a master recording with clipping was unacceptable.